Moscow, Sep 28 (FN Agency) More than 150 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine, developed by Russia’s Gamaleya Research Center, have already been distributed around the world, including in the home country, the center’s deputy director, Denis Logunov, said on Wednesday. “To date, based on a huge pool of data, more than 150 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine have been produced and used in the world and in Russia. Huge safety and efficiency data base has been accumulated,” Logunov said at the international conference OpenBio-2022 in Russia’s science town of Koltsovo. The accumulated data made it possible for Gamaleya Research Center to expand the product line and develop Sputnik M, a vaccine for children aged 12-17, as well as produce a nasal version of the Sputnik V vaccine, which was registered on April 1, according to Logunov.
Clinical studies of the nasal vaccine showed a significant increase in antibody titer, the researcher said, adding that the Russian health ministry recommends two doses of the vaccine. In addition, the research center will soon begin clinical trials of a vaccine against the delta and omicron variants of COVID-19. Meanwhile, the health ministry will allocate additional funding for a limited clinical trial for the development of a vaccine against the BA.5 coronavirus variant, Logunov noted. At the same time, the effectiveness of the Sputnik V vaccine from getting infected by new strains of COVID-19 has decreased if compared to the original strain, but the level of protection against lethality is still the same, he said. Sputnik V, a combination vector vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19, was registered in Russia in August 2020. Emergency mass-distribution of the vaccine began in December 2020 in Russia and later in such countries as Argentina, Belarus, Hungary and Serbia. As of January, the vaccine was authorized in more than 70 countries around the world.